The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

Jimmy Espy

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August 15, 2009

Jimmy Espy: Sound and fury

The ongoing debate over health care is giving me a headache.

I don’t know what’s more irksome, some old geezer screaming at the top of his lungs or the stone-faced politicians irritated that for appearance sake they have to pretend to care what the geezer is shouting about.

In the ham-handed yet haughty style he has perfected, President Obama continues to bungle, aiming his message at his true believers instead of the millions of Americans undecided about what to do, or even think, in the midst of this cacophony of yattering interest groups.

On the right, the birthers, the racists, the black helicopter crowd and other assorted kooks have drowned out the conservative-moderate majority, those fundamentally decent and reasonable people who are open to change on health care, but either convinced that the Democratic prescription is a bad idea or still unsure of its merits.

Our cocky president is losing this crowd. He beams not confidence, but smugness and offers little other than his self-perceived charm to deliver his message.

That’s enough for much of the national media, which has mobilized to undercut the popular resistance and support the man whose election many of them invested so heavily in.

The GOP “leadership” remains missing in action, either content to watch YouTube video of Arlen Specter being castigated at point blank range, or so rudderless and impotent that it cannot summon a response any more coherent than Specter’s babbling accuser.



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These are dark, dismal days for the GOP team and yet on the other side of the line of scrimmage Broadway Obama and the All Stars can’t even seem to decide what play to call.

Meanwhile, in another part of the world some very brave people, Iranians who had the nerve to demand real democracy in their country, are being tortured by a vile and vicious government. A series of show trials is ongoing, drawing scant attention from our Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who seems more offended by the bad manners of a young Congolese man who posed an important question ... to her husband.

Obama is no better. He remains silent as the Iranian clampdown grows more assured, more bloody.

History will not judge with charity Obama’s shameful silence, unless of course history is written by Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman, Jon Meacham and the other court jesters of our day.

It’s enough to make anyone sick.



Jimmy Espy is executive editor of North Georgia Newspaper Group. He blogs, sometimes in anger, at Espysoutpost.blog spot.com

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Jimmy Espy